


Goodbye

by AdessoFaSilenzio



Category: Eerie Crests (Webcomic)
Genre: Funerals, M/M, tw: death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-15
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-04-23 11:36:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14331627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdessoFaSilenzio/pseuds/AdessoFaSilenzio
Summary: Malek says the hardest goodbye





	Goodbye

Malek didn’t cry.

He didn’t do much of anything, really, except cradle their daughter in his arms and press his nose into her soft, black hair. She had Dallas’ sad brown eyes, like tarnished gold rings laying in an antiques shop. Seraphina, they had decided to name her.

Dallas had died, of all possible ways, during childbirth.

He should have known something was wrong the first time Dallas cried out in pain. He hadn’t even cried when Tyler’s bat had slipped out of his hand during practice and smashed his wrist. Dallas knew what agony felt like and had a high tolerance for it, but the doctors had assured him this was normal. Childbirth was supposed to be painful. The most beautiful pain in the world, they had said. 

They didn’t catch the hemorrhage until it was too late. Until Dallas’ hand went limp in his own and he heard the first cry of his beautiful little girl.

Now, she cooed peacefully in his arms, blissfully unaware of where she was, surrounded by headstones under a black awning, her father’s casket being lowered slowly into the ground before her. Hazel sat to Malek’s left, returned home from Northeastern for the somber event, and Ben sat to his right. Beyond them on either side the faces blurred. He knew distantly that Josie was beside Hazel, Phoebus beside Ben, and Poppy just behind him, ready to take Sera should Malek need to excuse himself.

It seemed like barely a blink had gone by before the dirt was poured over the black box holding the shell of the love of his life. The urge to puke - or better yet to fall to that earth on his knees and dig his way under to be with Dallas - bubbled up in the back of his throat, and Malek swallowed it down. It was done. There was no returning from this. It was time to face the mourning music and raise their child alone.

Afterward, people he’d known all his life but who suddenly looked like strangers lined up to clasp his hand and offer their sincere apologies. Even those who had made Dallas’ life hell way back when. Ellen was crying softly when she approached, and Blake looked sick with sorrow. He had a grip so tight on Tyler’s knuckles it looked like he could snap them in two.

Ben and Phoebus never left his side. Malek handed Sera over to Alex when he realized he couldn’t juggle holding her and engaging with everyone and feeling so terribly empty, and the redhead had enveloped him in a hug that had almost broken his numb resolve. Poppy had excused herself just after the funeral itself, as she had barely been able to hold herself together during the process and was actively crumbling the second she left her seat.

When he went home that night, everything was silent. The other side of the bed was pristinely made up, as though Dallas had never even been there at all. Malek set Seraphina in her bassinet and sprawled out. Buried his nose in Dallas’ cold pillow.

He fell asleep when his body gave out, utterly exhausted, with the pillow soaked in tears.


End file.
